Elska
by 898700
Summary: The palace guards are loyal, observant and secretive. They do whatever it takes to keep the peace and the royal family safe and sound. Bringing an infant home from a war zone hardly could go unnoticed.


This can be seen as a prequel to this prompt, from the norse!kink community at LJ. The title means "to cherish".

_The palace guards are loyal, observant and secretive. They do whatever it takes to keep the peace and the royal family safe and sound. Bringing an infant home from a war zone hardly could go unnoticed. Those few who know about Loki being adopted are relatively old now, but still the heads of the guards. They are also the ones all other guards ask for advice whenever strange things happen. Things like Loki screaming at Odin and then calling for help with tears still clearly visible on his face, or how troubled he looked after his return from Jotunheim and the talk with the W4 in the healing chambers. It's enough for the old elite to see that Loki is close to an epic break-down and they can at least partly guess what caused it._

* * *

When Sigurdr arrives to the King's chambers six guards are already waiting, and another one enters shortly after him. There's something familiar about the group, but he doesn't realize its significance until Odin All-Father announces that they are to be the second Prince's personal guard from now on.

Then the King says that they will have to devote their lives to this post, never to have a family or to be sent to war, if they chose to stay. Or they can say no and be dismissed with a handsome payment for their services, enough to start a comfortable life away from the palace.

All the guards stay, and it makes Sigurdr proud. Among the palace guards, they were the closest to Queen Frigga and Prince Thor while the King fought the war against Jotunheimr, and thus know this child comes not from the Queen's womb. The King entrusting them the well being of what apparently is his bastard war-child is not unheard off, even if the number of guards seems a bit excessive to Sigurdr.

But victory or not, calm doesn't reign in Asgard yet, and until Thor has a legitimate brother it seems wise for the All-Father to ensure protection for his spare heir. Sigurdr likes knowing he's going to help his realm this way, even if his prospects for the future spell boredom. Surely the child, and them with him, is going to be send to Asgard's outskirts. Or to a neighbor Realm, Vanaheim maybe, if Sigurdr is lucky.

* * *

By the end of the second day Njord has a minor and quiet breakdown. He waits until the end of the rotation, after he and Gunnar are relieved from their post by the royal nunnery, but once they are inside of their newly assigned barracks he allows his mind to race itself in circles.

The other four guards are waiting there, Orvar and Sindri and Sigurd and one he doesn't remember the name of.

They all look as scared as Njord feels.

"A Jotun," he says, and all the others look at him as if he's broken a sacred oath, which he possibly did.

"The All-Father is wise," the fourth guard says, and the look he gives Njord adds a silent 'and Heimdall is watching', which makes him keep his thoughts to himself.

They sit around the table, silent and brooding, for hours.

* * *

Orvar is getting tired of this, and once again praises the king's foresight. Had the guards been the usual four instead of the eight they are, their little group surely would be falling asleep on their feet, seeing how many murder attempts have been made against the Jotun.

"At least they cannot share their knowledge with their folk," Volundr offers after they have dropped yet another war hero to the dungeons, to suffer for a few days before Odin King erases his memories of the creature's true nature.

Orvar says nothing, as they all have discussed this in notes and hand gestures before. The King's original spell makes impossible for those who had been closest to him on Jotunheimr to share the truth, but it didn't stop them from trying to solve the problem with their own hands.

It is all a terrible mess, and Orvar just wants it all to end.

* * *

One night Alfr wakes up with a startle. He blinks, taking on his surroundings. According to the moons' positions he hasn't rested long, but the though doesn't leave his mind.

"When did I star thinking of him as nothing more than Prince Loki?" he says out loud, and looks up at Sindri, who is sitting on his own bed, polishing his armor.

The other guard doesn't answer, but Alfr didn't expect him to.

* * *

Now and then Gunnar remembers. Usually it is when Prince Loki does something in particular that further shows how unlike Prince Thor he is, but that something never is a difference one would expect between a Jotun and an Aesir.

Prince Loki is sweet.

He favors his mother over his father, which is to be expected on small children, but as Prince Loki grows it becomes obvious he's not the blood-thirsty little warrior his brother is.

Oh, he looks up at King Odin and follows him around like a little duckling ... when he isn't following Prince Thor, that is. But he prefers his mother's tales of wonder over his father's memories of war, and can sit quietly on her lap for hours while his brother cannot stand calm for more than a moment.

Prince Loki loves song and poetry, and has an eye for pretty things. He also likes his books, and drinks knowledge like a starving man just out of Muspelheim.

Gunnar sometimes longs for the distrust long ago dissipated. Instead he watches and waits, and waits and wonders.

* * *

When Prince Loki first shows his affinity with seidr Volundr is present. He isn't truly aware at the moment, but a long time later, after the guards have shared memories, they realize that he was the first one among them, probably even before the Prince's family.

Volundr is also present when Prince Loki first realizes he can control it. He is still a little babe, probably young enough that he doesn't have memories of the moment. But unlike the previous tiny bursts of uncontrolled power this one is deliberate, and Volundr shares a look with Alfr, and finds the other guard barely suppressing a smile.

Volundr has more control than that, but that doesn't stop the swell of pride.

* * *

Sindri shouldn't hate Prince Thor. From a warrior's point of view, the prince is everything Asgard strives for, what makes their realm great. As an Aesir, Sindri should adore the golden prince as much as other Aesir do, should praise his strength and charisma and his prowess in the training grounds. He should loudly approve the result of his hunts, the tales of valor, the multiple victories.

Sindri shouldn't find Queen Frigga guilty of favoritism. She loves her children equally and Sindri is aware of it, but at some point along the way he stopped noticing how much she gave and started focusing in how much was required. Sindri shouldn't blame her from not being enough.

Sindri shouldn't find King Odin lacking, but he does.

* * *

"And if they say no?" Yngvi asks, looking at the small babe in his arms. Laufey's lines are clear in his tiny face, and the lines in his chest and arms mark him as Farbaruti's as well. But there's no way the King doesn't know, so Yngvi chooses not to point out what is there for everybody to see.

"Then I'll have them killed," the King declares, weary. "I cannot risk my son's life."

They both watch as Yngvi's skin changes when a small hand clings to one of his fingers. They will have to be careful, at least until the little changeling's Aesir form stabilizes.

"I do not think they'll choose to leave," he finally says, handing the babe back to the King. "They are all men of honor, and while this might be against what they have grown being taught, with time I'm sure they'll come to love the boy."

Again, Yngvi faces what he would have never thought possible, given how much contempt the All-Father had for his mother's people in his youth. But as the King's scarred face shows, even the fiercest warrior gets tired of senseless death.

"Will you lead these men of honor, my friend?" Odin King asks, cradling the child with utmost care. "Can I entrust you my son's life?"

And Yngvi smiles and says "I'll look after him as if he were my own," and means every word of it.


End file.
